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12:44am
December 26, 2014
TINY RAPTOR FLUFF
It’s like a furry dinosaur
11:53am
January 14, 2014
Goose was one of my first pets to photograph, he belongs to the Aldie Vet Clinic’s office assistant. She adopted Goose when someone left him at the clinic because of his special needs. She was able care for him and give him a new home. When Goose arrived at my studio, his Momma let him down and he began sniffing around the space for about 10 minutes. Once he had everything mapped out, we were ready to work. It was really amazing to see him walk around the studio using his mental picture, and if you didn’t know any better, you would have no idea he couldn’t see!!! In just 10 minutes, he had everything so perfectly figured out, that he could even walk up and jump up on the bed, knowing precisely where it was!! He never bumped into anything and was very very very friendly. He had a smile on his face the whole time, it was an amazing experience for me :)Visit Suzanne’s website Paw Paw Pretty to see her wonderful pet photography.
12:04pm
January 1, 2014
Born without the use of her hind legs, Lola learned to walk just fine.
Lola don’t give a crap. Lola got places to be.
1:42pm
July 21, 2013
Often I notice cats handle disability better than humans do. Because humans have built up a lot of mess in our heads that makes it harder than it actually is if you just take it for what it is and get on with things. Not that cats are 100% thrilled with it, but they adapt faster and better in most cases. (Often it’s the humans watching them that make a bigger deal out of it than the cat does, sometimes with tragic results for the cat.) Humans who do less brooding on the matter and have fewer weird prejudices and preconceptions, tend to adapt better too.
5:23am
March 7, 2013
![[A small sculpture in ebony of a black cat with a regal air. One of her front legs is snapped off halfway down.]
feliscorvus is extremely talented at making things. Not just in her job as an engineer, but in her hobbies as painter, sculptor, and all kinds of other things that involve making things or altering things that are already made.
This is one example. She was both consciously and unconsciously modeled on cats known to both of us, but neither of us knew she would turn out so well until she happened. This is one of her first few attempts at sculpting cats from wood. And the cat she made turned out wonderful. And she sent this cat to me.
Like many cats in the real world, this sculpture had an accident that lost her part of one of her limbs. And like most cats in the real world, being pragmatic and lacking the prejudices about disability that most humans have, she gets on fine without it.
I’ve been compared before to a three-legged dog. I wasn’t insulted. The person making the comparison was another disabled person, and was trying to describe the way I adapt to most of my disabilities pretty naturally, without making much of a fuss about it. This sculpture lives in the same housing I do, for elderly and disabled people, and one of my neighbors suggested that by losing a leg she was just trying to fit in with all the other gimps around here.
And she does fit in. Her personality has only been amplified over time. And she does have a personality. The more you get to know her, the more facets and layers of that personality become visible to you. And now lacking a leg is part of it. Some people will tell you that disability has nothing to do with personality, but in many cases that is nonsense. Disabled people are shaped by the world we live in, our bodies, and all the ways those things connect together. We can pretend that we are totally separate from the way our bodies function, but it’s only a pretense. And her missing leg shapes her as much as her other legs, her tail, and her head shapes her. So my neighbor was right, she’s one more gimp in a building of gimps and she’s no worse off for it.
She wasn’t exactly intended to turn out this way, but apparently she never quite wanted to have that leg made, it was going against what the wood seemed to want. So it makes sense that it mysteriously not only fell off but disappeared completely such that no search of the area she was found in, has ever found that leg. And despite the way some people think about disability, she is no less complete without that leg than with it. In fact in some ways she seems more complete, but don’t ask me to explain why.](http://36.media.tumblr.com/d7b8fedbfaa3ec9b9103c4cfa4f75a81/tumblr_mjacvu8qSD1qdmvbuo1_500.jpg)
[A small sculpture in ebony of a black cat with a regal air. One of her front legs is snapped off halfway down.]
feliscorvus is extremely talented at making things. Not just in her job as an engineer, but in her hobbies as painter, sculptor, and all kinds of other things that involve making things or altering things that are already made.
This is one example. She was both consciously and unconsciously modeled on cats known to both of us, but neither of us knew she would turn out so well until she happened. This is one of her first few attempts at sculpting cats from wood. And the cat she made turned out wonderful. And she sent this cat to me.
Like many cats in the real world, this sculpture had an accident that lost her part of one of her limbs. And like most cats in the real world, being pragmatic and lacking the prejudices about disability that most humans have, she gets on fine without it.
I’ve been compared before to a three-legged dog. I wasn’t insulted. The person making the comparison was another disabled person, and was trying to describe the way I adapt to most of my disabilities pretty naturally, without making much of a fuss about it. This sculpture lives in the same housing I do, for elderly and disabled people, and one of my neighbors suggested that by losing a leg she was just trying to fit in with all the other gimps around here.
And she does fit in. Her personality has only been amplified over time. And she does have a personality. The more you get to know her, the more facets and layers of that personality become visible to you. And now lacking a leg is part of it. Some people will tell you that disability has nothing to do with personality, but in many cases that is nonsense. Disabled people are shaped by the world we live in, our bodies, and all the ways those things connect together. We can pretend that we are totally separate from the way our bodies function, but it’s only a pretense. And her missing leg shapes her as much as her other legs, her tail, and her head shapes her. So my neighbor was right, she’s one more gimp in a building of gimps and she’s no worse off for it.
She wasn’t exactly intended to turn out this way, but apparently she never quite wanted to have that leg made, it was going against what the wood seemed to want. So it makes sense that it mysteriously not only fell off but disappeared completely such that no search of the area she was found in, has ever found that leg. And despite the way some people think about disability, she is no less complete without that leg than with it. In fact in some ways she seems more complete, but don’t ask me to explain why.
6:17pm
March 26, 2012
Pookie: How We Care for Our Paralyzed Cat
Hands down the best video I’ve seen before on cats and paralysis, especially showing what a full life he lives and how simple some of the stuff that normally scares people, can be. From other videos and writing I know there are several ways to handle poop besides this one, from expressing it by hand on a schedule to warm baths and diapers and probably other things.
10:24pm
March 24, 2012
I love videos of disabled cats. Not for the reasons most people do (I’m not and never will be ~inspired~ by them) but because they react to disability pretty much how humans do (minus cultural bullshit) – still the same person, just have to modify how you do things.
11:38pm
February 22, 2012
Disabled cats vs. cat books
Yes I’m writing a lot. I think because I’m nervous about my dad.
Just about every book on cat care I have ever owned says not to adopt a cat if the cat appears sick or disabled in any way. This really pisses me off because this has to mean that a lot of disabled cats die in shelters, if they weren’t killed just for being sick or disabled to begin with.
The thing is that, like disabled humans, disabled cats are cats. They’re not objects that you buy and then return if they’re defective, or fail to buy at all if you catch onto the defect soon enough. And despite the opposite route some people take (the oh so inspirational and amazing that they don’t just curl up and die thing), disabled cats generally either are okay functioning how they function, or become so after an adjustment period. They generally lack the cultural beliefs humans have about disability, so they angst about being defective less often. The thing is so would humans in societies that were more accepting. I mean there’s going to be things like chronic pain that will feel bad no matter what, but they tend towards being pretty resilient otherwise.
The problem is humans project our various cultural problems about disability onto cats. And since we control their life and death, the “I’d rather be dead” thing we have going on, becomes fatal to many cats who would clearly rather live.
(And then people make horrible statements about disabled humans like “We kill cats if they have this condition or another so why aren’t we just as merciful to humans?” No. Just no. Most times killing a disabled cat isn’t mercy, and the same goes for humans. Cats just have less choice in the matter. If disabled humans were routinely as powerless as nearly all cats against humans, they’d probably be killing us in far greater numbers. Just judging from how most people seem to view disability.)
Anyway, I didn’t use health when I chose Fey. Or rather she chose me. She had the runny eyes and nose that all the cat books say not to adopt a cat for. (Yes – even the equivalent of a cold is supposedly grounds for passing over a cat’s adoption, and thus making their death more likely.) And she was fine. She has what appears to be a nerve disorder causing chronic pain and occasional twitching in one of her legs. She clearly loves life, unless you press on any part of her where that nerve goes. (The vet said she’d never seen a cat communicate so specifically where her pain is located.)
Anyway I wish humans wouldn’t project our own standards of disability on cats. Because cats operate on very different standards. Not because they’re amazing inspirational creatures. Just because they’re cats. There are lots of rescues serving disabled animals so definitely look into them if you’re thinking of adopting.